From: "-= Henky =-" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Liberty of Death by Rick Joyner
January 24, 2005
For the last two weeks we have discussed how the Jordan River, which
represents death, overflowed all of its banks all of the days of the harvest.
We also discussed how we are going to have to learn to deal with much death in
our times, but keep on functioning and pursuing our purpose.
Israel had to cross the Jordan River to enter their Promised Land, which
speaks of how we must enter into the baptism of the death of the cross before
we can attain the promises. This is where the church has now come. We are at a
crossing. If we will enter into the true baptism, the crucified life, which
means that we live each day for Him and not just ourselves, we will start to
possess all of the promises of God for His people.
We must also keep in mind that death is the greatest liberation that we
can ever know. The devil uses fear to bind just as the Lord uses faith in the
truth to set people free. What does a dead man fear? If we are dead to this
world, there is nothing that the world can do to us. It is impossible for a
dead man to have fears of failure, fears of rejection, or even fear of
the dark. To the degree that any fear still has its grip on us, is to the
degree that we have failed to go to the cross. The cross will set us free from
all fear!
A dead man will not lust, covet, feel anger, seek revenge, or even feel
lonely. There is no greater freedom than that which comes from dying to this
world so as to be alive in Christ. This is what Israel learned from their first
baptism-the crossing of the Red Sea, as we read in I Corinthians 10:1-2:
For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were
all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; and all were baptized into
Moses in the cloud and in the sea...."
When Israel entered into this baptism in the Red Sea, it resulted in the
destruction of the enemies that had kept them in bondage for so long.
Pharaoh and his army were a biblical model of Satan and his hordes, seeking to
keep God's people in bondage. We see that baptism is the one place where they
cannot follow us, which will result in their destruction. When Israel entered
into that baptism, they were to never see those enemies again. Many of the
things that have bound us for so long will likewise be destroyed when we enter
the true baptism-the crucified life.
Does the Jordan River represent a second baptism? In a sense it does.
Just as Deuteronomy means "a second law" and the book of Deuteronomy resulted
from Moses reviewing everything that was required of Israel before they crossed
over and possessed their Promised Land, there is a baptism that we must go
through when we first begin to follow the Lord. A second commitment is usually
required before we enter into our Promised Land because many drift away from
their commitment to the crucified life during
their wilderness years. That we are being drawn back to the cross in these
times is a sign that we are about to cross over and start possessing all that
we have been called to do.
There is a baptism when we leave Egypt and a baptism when we enter the
Promised Land. This is a message that the cross is both the beginning and the
end of our journey. The cross sets us free from the world (Egypt) and is the
door to entering into our inheritance in Christ.
The wise are forever mindful that the cross is everything. However, the
cross does not just represent death, but the door to resurrection life, which
is represented by the Promised Land. We will cover this in much more depth in
the coming studies. For now let us be reminded and keep in mind the degree to
which we have died to this world is the degree to which we are
free to really live. That is the point of dying to this world and to
ourselves-so that we can walk in resurrection life and impart true life to
others.
=======================================
From: "-= Henky =-" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossing Over
by Rick Joyner
January 10, 2005
The recent earthquake and tsunamis that struck so many countries in the
Indian Ocean are taxing the whole world's relief efforts. In human life lost,
it will go down as one of the worst natural disasters in human history. It does
have important prophetic significance that we need to understand, which is
highlighted in Joshua 3:3-4,14-17:
"When you see the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God with the
Levitical priests carrying it, then you shall set out from your place and go
after it.
However, there shall be between you and it a distance of about 2,000
cubits by measure. Do not come near it, that you may know the way by which you
shall go, for you have not passed this way before."
So it came about when the people set out from their tents to cross the
Jordan with the priests carrying the ark of the covenant before the people, and
when those who carried the ark came into the Jordan, and the feet of the
priests carrying the ark were dipped in the edge of the water (for the Jordan
overflows all its banks all the days of harvest), that the waters which were
flowing down from above stood and rose up in one heap, a great distance away at
Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan; and those which were flowing down
toward the sea of the Arabah, the Salt Sea, were completely cut off. So the
people crossed opposite Jericho.
And the priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood
firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan while all Israel crossed on dry
ground, until all the nation had finished crossing the Jordan.
In Scripture, the Jordan River often represents death, which is why both
Jesus and John the Baptist were baptized there. The Jordan River also empties
into the Dead Sea. There was a reason why the Lord commanded the Ark of the
Covenant to be carried across the Jordan "about" 2,000 cubits ahead of the rest
of the people. The Ark represents Jesus and the cubits represent years. This
was a prophetic statement that the Lord would pass through death to His
Promised Land "about" 2,000 years before the rest of His people.
The Lord said that "...the harvest is the end of the age..." (Matthew
13:39), and we read in Joshua 3:15 that "...the Jordan River overflows all its
banks all of the days of harvest.." This speaks of how death will be
overflowing all of its banks all of the days of the harvest, which is the end
of the age. Because of this, we can expect natural and human disasters to
increase during the coming times.
As all of the Lord Jesus' own prophecies concerning these times make very
clear, we are coming to the greatest times of trouble the world has ever known.
However, the good news is, if we have built our lives on the kingdom which
cannot be shaken, we will not only survive what is coming, but we will prevail
and prosper. This is actually the time when the church is
going to cross over and begin to possess its Promised Land.
At the same time, we must understand that at the very time that such
great troubles are going to be coming upon the world that "the Jordan River
overflows all of its banks." Christians who are walking in the ways of the Lord
are going to prosper more than they ever have before. The present world systems
may be shaking, but if we are abiding in the Lord we are on a Rock that simply
cannot be shaken. However, our prosperity is not so that we can live
luxuriously, but so that we can help the desperate.
In Joshua 3:16,we are told that the waters of the Jordan ".which were
flowing down from above stood and rose up in one heap, a great distance away at
Adam." This could have been translated that the waters of the Jordan "were
rolled back all the way to Adam."It was no accident that this little town was
named "Adam," just as there are no accidents anywhere in Scripture.
When God's people begin to pass through this baptism in the Jordan, entering
into a life which truly takes up the cross every day, dying to ourselves so we
can be alive to Him, we will begin possessing the promises of God that we are
called to inherit. Death will then be rolled back all the way to Adam! All of
the death that was the consequence of the Fall will be turned back.
There is much to be said about this, but for this week we must understand
that death will be overflowing "all of its banks" during the time of the
harvest. We must prepare ourselves for increasingly great natural and manmade
disasters, as we get closer to the end of this age. We will need to learn to
cope with death all around us and keep on functioning. Just as no
general is likely to be successful if he is overly concerned about casualties,
we too will have to learn to cope with death all around us, not being overly
given to grieving or mourning the dead, in order to save the living from an
even greater, eternal disaster.
The prophecies of these times are fearful for those who are not abiding
in the Prince of Peace. Even so, we are entering the times that even the
prophets of old desired to see. We must understand that problems are coming,
and to avoid looking for them because they make us uncomfortable or fearful is
to live in deception. Those who have built their lives on the
kingdom have nothing to fear. Those who have not will have much to fear, and it
is better for them to fear than to go on in their delusions and be in the
terrible jeopardy those delusions keep them in. Therefore, we want to see these
things for what they are, and be prepared not to just survive, but to save many
others.
Israel's inheritance was the land, and they dispossessed the people who
were on it. Our inheritance, which is also the Lord's, is the people.
Even though the Jordan will be overflowing its banks, and death will be all
around us, the power of His indestructible life will be flowing through us to
reap the greatest harvest that the world has ever known. We must not sleep or
be distracted while the treasure of the earth is ripe for reaping
========================================
From: "-= Henky =-" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Victory Over Death
by Rick Joyner
January 17, 2005
Last week we discussed how the Jordan River, which represents death,
overflowed all of its banks all the days of the harvest. This was a prophetic
sign that during the harvest (the end of the age), we can expect death to be
overflowing all of its banks. However, when the Ark and the people of Israel
entered into the Jordan, it says that its waters were rolled back all the way
to Adam. This speaks about how when the church follows the Lord into the
crucified life where we die daily, no longer living for ourselves but for Him,
it will turn back death all the way to Adam, or all that was caused by the fall
of man.
Both Jesus and John baptized in the Jordan River because it emptied into
the Dead Sea, and therefore symbolically represented death. Baptism is a ritual
performed to emphasize an important spiritual reality. The bane of Christianity
since the third century has been to substitute rituals for the realities that
they were intended to illuminate. The ritual was meant to
convey the commitment on the part of the one baptized that they would die to
themselves to live to Christ. After the third century, one could be baptized in
place of living the crucified life, removing the life and power of the cross
from the church.
I do not want to belittle the importance of the ritual. A wedding
ceremony is a ritual and not the marriage itself, but because marriage is so
important it is right to make a big deal out of the ritual. Likewise, it is
right to make a big deal out of baptism, communion, and the other important
rituals handed down to us, but they must not be allowed to supplant the truths
that they were given to us to illuminate.
You can dunk someone in the water all day and not have them partake of
the death or resurrection of Jesus. There is nothing magical about the water.
The power is in the crucified life. The baptism is performed as a commitment to
live the crucified life in order that we might also be resurrected with Christ
as we read in Romans 6:4-5:
Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in
order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father,
so we too might walk in newness of life.
For we have become UNITED with Him in the likeness of His death,
certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection (emphasis mine).
We must note here that in this text there is no mention of water! This is
not speaking of water baptism, but of what water baptism represents-the
crucified life. As Paul further conveyed in Romans 6:5: "For if we have become
united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the
likeness of His resurrection."
What did the Lord mean when He stated, "I have come to cast a fire upon
the earth; and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to
undergo, and how distressed I am until it is accomplished!" (Luke 12:49-50)?
Was the baptism that was distressing Him simply being immersed in water? Of
course not. He was referring to His impending crucifixion. That
crucifixion is also the meaning of our baptism.
Jesus was likewise referring to the baptism into His crucifixion when
James and John asked to be seated on His right and left in the kingdom. He
said, "You do not know what you are asking for. Are you able to drink of the
cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?"
(Mark 10:38)
It is a basic spiritual principle that death is the path to life in
Christ. We are called to live now by the power and authority of the resurrected
life of Christ, but by its very definition one cannot experience a resurrection
without first experiencing a death. To be baptized with His
baptism is to be conformed to the purpose of His death, the laying down of our
own lives for the sake of others.
When the church reduced the truth of the crucified (and thereby
resurrected) life to a mere ritual has robbed the Lord of our consecra�tion,
the church of its salvation, and has stolen from the world the power of the
gospel. There are many Scriptures that make the meaning of this very clear. The
following are just a few of them, which I encourage you to read carefully as
their importance is literally life and death:
For if we died with Him we shall also live with Him; if we endure we
shall also reign with Him (II Timothy 2:11-12).
The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the
children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs
with Christ, IF INDEED WE SUFFER WITH HIM IN ORDER THAT we may also be
glorified with Him. (Romans 8:16-17 emphasis mine).
That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the
FELLOWSHIP OF HIS SUFFERINGS, being conformed to His death IN ORDER THAT I may
attain to the resurrection from the dead (Philippians 3:10-11 emphasis mine).
For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe
in Him, but also to suffer for His sake (Philippians 1:29).
We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brethren, as is only
fitting, because your faith is greatly enlarged, and the love of each one of
you toward one another grows ever greater; therefore, we ourselves speak
proudly of you among the churches of God for your perseverance and faith in the
midst of all your persecutions and afflictions which you endure.
This is a plain indication of God's righteous judgment so that you may
be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which indeed you are suffering
(II Thessalonians 1:3-5).
We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not
despairing;
persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; ALWAYS
carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may
be manifested in our body.
For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus'
sake, that the life of Jesus may be also manifested in our mortal flesh (II
Corinthians 4:8-11).
The Lord made it clear in His Word; if we are to partake of His life we
must also partake of His death "that they who live should no longer live for
themselves, but for Him." (II Corinthians 5:15). Any other teaching is a false
gospel and an enemy of the cross. Death separates the things that are natural
from the things that are spiritual. Again, to have a resurrection, there must
first be a death. If we want to walk in the resurrection life of Jesus, we must
be willing to lay down our lives for Him.
In the first century, some of the people thought that if they would
circumcise their flesh they would be right with God, but He requires the
circumcision of our hearts. There are those today that point to the day of
their immersion as the day they died with Jesus and were resurrected. Every
ritual of our faith is just that-a ritual that is meant to symbolize a
com�mitment to the spiritual reality of which it speaks. In Christ we must die
in order to live. The Lord Jesus Himself testified:
If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up
his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it;
but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it (Matthew 16:24-25).
There can be no question that the Lord intended our baptism to be the
daily reality of a crucified life. However, as we discussed last week, such a
life that dies to itself and its own selfish interests is the most free and
powerful life of all. That is what the Lord will give to us in exchange for our
life-the greatest freedom and the greatest power to do good that we
could even know.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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